


Drugstore

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 12:57:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Carol bumps into a familiar, haunting face from her past at the drugstore.





	Drugstore

Manhattan, New York, Summer, 1953

_Tap, tap... Tap, tap... Ding!_

Therese paused in front of her Royale typewriter and pushed her reading glasses further up her nose. She had not heard Carol coming into the study room, because she was far too focused on her newspaper article story about the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. Carol, resting both hands against the wooden doorframe, watched Therese hitting the typewriter keys rapidly at her work desk, with a mixture of awe and admiration.

_Tap, tap. Tap..._

"I need to go pick up a few things at the drugstore. Do you want anything?" Carol asked softly.

"No, I should be fine," Therese said. She held onto the edge of the typewriter before hitting the keys again with her fingers.

_Tap... Ding! Tap, tap..._

"Don't work too hard now," Carol smirked. "You’ll strain your eyes. Try not to miss me too much..."

"Kay," Therese answered back formally. She was so stressed out and tired and slid both her hands over her face; making her tiny glasses ride up on her forehead. 

Carol left the apartment soon after that. The drugstore was so close by, that she didn't need to hail for a cab. Emerson's location was just two blocks away from Madison Ave. Carol went inside and greeted the shopkeeper before going straight to the cigarette machine. Grabbing her favorite packet of smokes, she then went down through the two aisles to browse around. Carol needed some more sanitary napkins, a new can opener, and a bottle of vegetable oil. She waited in line at the service desk with her things. The tall, slick-haired gentleman standing in front of her, had purchased his items in a big, brown bag, and turned his head briefly to Carol. His bookish, beady-eyed face made her gasp out loud, for she had recognized this man:

It was Tommy Tucker.

"Nice to see you again, Mrs. Aird. How are you?" he greeted her with the same lukewarm, boyish charm. 

"W-What are you doing here?" 

Tommy grinned as he stepped aside with his brown bag of canned goods to let Carol pass through with her own items and set them down on the store counter. "I've met someone who lives here in New York, Mrs. Aird. I've fallen in love with a woman-"

"My impression was another man," Carol spoke delicately.

Tommy broke down laughing. He laughed so hard and so bitter, that he had to pull his handkerchief out from his back pocket trousers and dab out the corners of his eyes. "You have a funny bone in you, Mrs. Aird. She's a twenty-six-year-old professional ballet dancer... Goes by the name of Charlene Grace!"

Carol paid and received her small paper brown bag from the shopkeeper. She thanked him, ignoring Tommy, who was rambling on about asking this Charlene Grace for her hand in marriage and setting the date of their wedding in the early Fall. As he followed her out of the drugstore and held the door open for Carol; she turned around to face him with a look of utter disgust.

"Stay away from me, Mr. Tucker," she spoke back to him with anger rising in her voice. "What you did to me was unforgivable and cruel, and I will not let your actions slide and roll off as if they meant nothing!" 

"You're still sore about it? I was just doing my job, Mrs. Aird," Tommy shrugged.

Carol glared back at him, but didn't say another word. She thought about Therese living with her now, and how everything was going so well and so perfect in their lives. No more secret car trips, no more court rulings, no more fighting with Harge constantly over their daughter Rindy. There was a time when Tommy Tucker had done so much damage, that it had almost ruined the relationship between Carol and Therese permanently. But all that was in the past now, and here they were, living in the same apartment, still madly head-over-heels in love. If blackmail couldn't stop them from being together, than nothing else could.

"You're invited to my wedding, by the way," Tommy spoke on. "Think of it as a kindly, no-hard-feelings type of gesture."

"Go to hell, Mr. Tucker," Carol responded back softly. That's when she left him now, carrying her paper bag in one hand while patting out her blonde curls with the other. Her dismissal infuriated Tommy and destroyed his dominating male-ego. 

Therese was still seated at her work desk when Carol arrived back to the apartment. The younger woman glanced around and watched the blonde set down a paper bag on the coffee table, looking rather pleased with herself and refreshed for some reason. Feeling left out and regretting for not choosing to come along, she asked Carol,

"How was the drugstore? Did you find everything alright?"

"Oh, absolutely," Carol said, slipping one cigarette out between two, slender fingers, sticking it into her mouth. "I found what I needed. And I ran into Tommy Tucker, too..."

"What did he want?" Therese asked. Fear had now crawled up and settled the back of her throat. 

"He was telling me how he met and has fallen in love with this young, ballet dancer here, in the city," Carol chuckled through the cigarette in her lips. "They're going to get married, apparently..."

"Who would want to marry him?" Therese murmured. She shuddered at her desk, making Carol laugh louder.

"Wait, wait, that's not the best part, darling," Carol giggled. "Tucker even had the nerve to go ahead and invite me along to their wedding. A 'kindly, no-hard-feelings type of gesture' how he so nicely calls it."

Therese curled up her nose now, which had only made Carol laugh harder and have so much trouble lighting up her Zippo.

**xxxx**

**Author's Note:**

> Tommy Tucker has finally appeared in one of my Carol stories! After watching the film again, the idea for this one shot quickly came into mind...


End file.
